Judge assigned to Big Ten injunction is Michigan alumnus, lecturer

Friday night, Michigan filed a temporary restraining order against the Big Ten in light of Jim Harbaugh’s suspension. The timing of the decision was interesting considering it’s a court holiday with Veteran’s Day coming up on Saturday.

The case was assigned to Washtenaw County judge Timothy P. Connors, a Michigan alumnus and lecture at the university’s law school, according to Tony Paul of the Detroit News. Connors played defensive back at Michigan and lettered in 1972, according to The Athletic’s Chris Vannini, and graduated in 1977. He then received his J.D. from Wayne State in 1980.

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Later on, the case moved in front of Judge Carol Kuhnke, according to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg. She is also a Michigan alumna.

The Big Ten handed down a three-game suspension of Harbaugh as part of the sign-stealing scandal, but Michigan said it’d take legal action if such a punishment came down. That happened Friday night as the Wolverines were preparing to take on Penn State in a Saturday matchup in Happy Valley. News of Harbaugh’s suspension came down while Michigan was on its flight to State College for the game.

Despite courts being closed for most matters on Friday in Michigan for the observance of Veteran’s Day, there is usually a judge available on holidays to handle emergency matters, though not usually of this exact nature.

In its statement, Michigan warned a legal battle was coming as a result of the suspension, which Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti handed down under the league’s sportsmanship policy.

“Commissioner Petitti’s hasty action today suggests that this is more about reacting to pressure from other Conference members than a desire to apply the rules fairly and impartially,” the statement read. “By taking this action at this hour, the Commissioner is personally inserting himself onto the sidelines and altering the level playing field that he is claiming to preserve.  And, doing so on Veteran’s Day – a court holiday – to try to thwart the University from seeking immediate judicial relief is hardly a profile in impartiality. 

“To ensure fairness in the process, we intend to seek a court order, together with Coach Harbaugh, preventing this disciplinary action from taking effect.”

Former staffer Connor Stalions is alleged to have operated a system to send scouts to future opponents’ games, tasked with gathering information on signals that Michigan could then use when playing that opponent — violating NCAA rules. Stalions announced his resignation on Nov. 3 and, in a statement through his lawyer, claimed Jim Harbaugh didn’t know about the actions.

This is the second suspension against Harbaugh this season. He previously served a self-imposed, three-game ban as part of the NCAA’s investigation into recruiting violations during the COVID dead period. The NCAA has still yet to hand down punishment on that infractions case, for which Harbaugh faces a Level I violation for not cooperating with or misleading NCAA investigators about the alleged violations.